Subtitles for The Apartment is Quiet as Paper (2021)
English
April 01 2026 05:14:01
Created by Niffiwan, Argopoiss₂, Clarence Brown₂, Ian Probstein₂, William Stanley Merwin₂
Kvartira tiha, kak bumaga.2021.en.1.25fps.1775020441.srt ⭳
Quality: ok
The subtitles were first made by Agropoiss, using a modified version of Ian Probstein's translation. The translation was then redone by Niffiwan, based partly on two translations one by Ian Probstein, and a second by Clarence Brown and W.S. Merwin. Unfortunately, both of the published translations had some significant errors. The attempt was made to make the poem more understandable in English and reduce bad grammar, errors and obscure references. Also, it was attempted to make the poem have the same number of syllables per line and rhyme (or sort-of rhyme) if possible.
At 00:45 - "playing tunes like a comb" seems to be a reference to the comb kazoo, a simple instrument that can be made (often by children) by folding a piece of paper over a household comb (example here).
At 00:57 - "stern lullabies" is an oxymoron, a contradiction. Another possible translation would have been "threatening lullabies".
"local big shot kulak" is an attempted translation of "Кулацкий бай" (Kulatskiy bai). In the original poem, it was "Колхозный бай" (Kolhoznyy bai). "Kulak" (literally, "fist") was a term for a rich peasant who owned a lot of land and had other peasants work for him - they were considered enemies of the Soviet government and there was a campaign against them in the 1920s-1930s. The word "Bai", which comes from Central Asian and Turkic languages, means: "a rich landowner, a wealthy peasant, a local boss or patriarch". In Soviet rhetoric: a class enemy, a rural exploiter. In this poem: a wealthy, influential peasant, someone with power over the speaker. Perhaps even: a rural bumpkin, who is of a lower class than the author, but (intolerably for the author) has power over him.
At 1:04 - "изобразитель" could have also been translated as "artist" or "illustrator" or even "somebody who shows off". This is followed by the next line: "Чесатель колхозного льна" - literally "A comber of flax grown on the collective farm". A "flax‑comber" is a low‑status, menial worker, not an artist - so this contradicts/mocks the previous line.
At 1:10 - the "fearsome stake" refers to the last line of the previous stanza. The speaker is not actually going to impale anyone; he is a poet, not an executioner. His only weapon is his voice - and even that voice is reduced to a harmless "lullaby" sung for a petty tyrant.
1:17 - "honest and plainspoken traitor" - another oxymoron. It could also be "a loyal informer". Someone who betrays others with sincerity, conviction, or ideological purity, while believing he’s doing the right thing.
"Like salt" - salt is boiled to purify it.
1:31 - the poet is now speaking to himself, revving himself up to finally muster the courage to take a stand after a long lifetime of being timid.
1:43 - Hippocrene, the mythic spring of poetic inspiration on Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses (in Greek mythology). A contrast between contrast between the ideal of classical, divine inspiration, and what the poet honestly feels.
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